Defining Major Home Occupation
An Issue Background Paper for Stakeholders
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Defining Major Home Occupation
An Issue Background Paper for Stakeholders
Contents
1
Introduction ............................................................................................................................1
1.1
Purpose of Stakeholder Consultation................................................................................... 1
1.2
What is a Major Home Occupation? .................................................................................... 2
1.3
Why Should You Care? ......................................................................................................... 2
2
Issue Description: The Definition..............................................................................................3
3
Background: Introducing the Planning Framework ................................................................... 4
4
3.1
Municipal Development Plan ............................................................................................... 4
3.2
Land Use Bylaw..................................................................................................................... 5
3.3
Development Permits ........................................................................................................... 6
Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................7
4.1
Key Questions ....................................................................................................................... 7
4.2
How to get in touch? ............................................................................................................ 7
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Defining Major Home Occupation
An Issue Background Paper for Stakeholders
1 Introduction
Brazeau County is reviewing the Land Use Bylaw No. 782-12. This includes a review of the
definition and regulation of major home occupations. A home occupation is a business use that
operates from a residential property in the Agricultural District and is not the main use of the
property. There are three types: minor, medium and major. Concerns were identified that the
definition of major home occupation is too limiting and in some cases too broad. In brief, the
major home occupation may have several vehicles, trailers and employees with limited outdoor
storage, while the minor and medium home occupations are smaller in intensity.
Over the past several months Brazeau County Council has been discussing the appropriate level of
regulation for major home occupations in the Land Use Bylaw, and also how large of a business
should be permitted to operate near residences or on a residential property. It became clear that
a new perspective would be useful and Council directed Administration to meet and talk to people
operating major home occupations, or with an interest in how they are regulated, to see how they
thought major home occupations should be regulated by the County through the Land Use Bylaw.
The purpose of this paper is to outline the issues and implications surrounding the regulation of
Major Home Occupations in the Land Use Bylaw for stakeholder consultation. There are three
sections to this paper:
1.1
•
Issue Description: describes the issues related to regulating major home occupations.
•
Planning Framework: describes the policy and regulatory land use documents that are the
tools for regulation.
•
Regulating Major Home Occupations: discusses the current regulations and implications
for changing them.
Purpose of Stakeholder Consultation
Council and Administration are of the opinion that meeting and talking to people who operate,
work in or own a home based business would be beneficial to understanding how best to
regulate these uses. We also want to talk to people who have an interest in how the major
home occupations are regulated but who may not work at or run one. Whether a neighbour or
an industrial park developer, many people can have a valid opinion to ensure this regulation
meets their needs.
We will benefit hearing input from a wide range of people to ensure we create a relevant major
home occupation definition and beneficial regulations.
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Defining Major Home Occupation
An Issue Background Paper for Stakeholders
1.2
What is a Major Home Occupation?
A home occupation is a business that is carried out on a residential property, but is not the
principal use of the property. It is only allowed in an Agricultural District and Country
Residential District (although Council has recently passed a motion proposing to remove it from
the Country Residential District).
The distinction between minor, medium and major home occupations is created by the
definitions in the Land Use Bylaw. These currently define a major home occupation as:
HOME OCCUPATION “MAJOR” means the secondary use of a principal dwelling
unit and/or accessory building(s) by a permanent resident of the
dwelling unit to conduct a business activity which does not change the
residential character of the dwelling and/or accessory building(s), does
not employ more than four (4) employees concurrently. The maximum
number of permitted vehicles is six (6), with associated trailers, up to
a maximum capacity of one‐ton GVW. A Major Home Occupation may exhibit
outdoor storage of vehicles used for the business but other equipment
and building materials but it must be screened from view.
This definition was viewed as too limiting. Problems included too much restriction on vehicle
weight and numbers of vehicles. The definition was also viewed as too permissive of outdoor
storage. As discussed below in section 3.2 Land Use Bylaw, Council has already provided some
direction on how this definition should change.
1.3
Why Should You Care?
The way in which major home occupation is defined and regulated will affect the type, manner
of operation and size of business uses that can take place on a residential property in the
Agricultural District. It may also limit the impacts that can be created by major home
occupations (such as noise, dust or visual impacts). This could affect your business
opportunities, the amount of activity that can take place on your neighbour’s property, how
potential new business owners and potential new residents perceive moving to Brazeau County
and how existing ones feel about staying.
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Defining Major Home Occupation
An Issue Background Paper for Stakeholders
2 Issue Description: The Definition
Key Question
What size, scale and intensity of business uses should be included in the major
home occupation use in order to balance economic opportunity with quality of
life? How should these be regulated in the Land Use Bylaw?
There are three levels of home occupations in the LUB, being minor, medium and major. These
are all permitted as accessory uses of a property, meaning that there needs to be an existing
residential use before the major home occupation can receive a development permit. The
definitions of each from the Land Use Bylaw are summarized below:

Minor Home Occupation: no non-residents are employed, does not change the residential
character in any way. Examples could include home offices, artist studio.

Medium Home Occupation: up to two non-residents are employed; up to two vehicles to one
ton; does not change the residential character; no outdoor storage. Examples could include
janitorial business, traveling salesperson.

Major Home Occupation: up to four non-resident employees; does not change the residential
character of the building or accessory buildings; up to 6 trucks and trailers to one ton; Outdoor
storage allowed, but it must be screened. Examples could minor contracting services, offsite
sales and services. This is only permitted in the Agricultural District and Country Residential
District.
We have not identified issues around the definitions or the degree of regulation toward minor and
medium home occupations. There were key issues that led to the review of the way in which the
major home occupation accessory use is regulated. These included:
1. The definition may be interpreted broadly in some cases. For example outdoor storage is
allowed which can be interpreted broadly to allow excessive outdoor storage and storage
of hazardous materials which may not be appropriate near residential uses.
2. The definition may be too limiting in some ways, not permitting small industrial uses to
operate on an appropriate residential site where impacts from the operation of the major
home occupation are contained onsite. For example, two steam trucks which weigh in
excess of the one ton gross vehicle weight limit for the major home occupation use.
3. Major home based business, as other business do, can grow and expand their operations.
However when their size exceeds the limits imposed through the Land Use Bylaw the use
is expected to relocate to a suitable industrial property. This was not always happening.
One identified solution was to require time limited development permits for major home
occupations that would expire and could be renewed on a tri-annual cycle.
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Defining Major Home Occupation
An Issue Background Paper for Stakeholders
With your input we would like to find a way to regulate major home occupations that balances the
need for economic development, safety and the ease of doing business in Brazeau County with the
needs of providing a high quality of life for residents and maintaining a residential character that is
attractive for potential new residents. It is important to create economic opportunities, but
without supporting an attractive area to live with a high quality of life it may be increasingly
difficult to attract employees and residents who will live in Brazeau County for the long term. A
highly transient population that can result from an overemphasis on economic development at the
cost of quality of life can also reduce community bonds. This reflects the inherent tension
between supporting both quality of life and economic growth and transition. Ideally, one should
not come at the cost of the other.
Key Question
What type and intensity of business use is suitable on a residential property and
in a rural residential neighbourhood? Which types are not suitable?
3 Background: Introducing the Planning Framework
This section provides a general overview of the planning framework, including the Municipal
Development Plan, Land Use Bylaw and Development Permits. These documents are given their
legal authority through the Municipal Government Act. This section also illustrates how the
planning framework applies to major home occupations.
3.1
Municipal Development Plan
The Municipal Development Plan includes policies which set out high level land use goals and
policies. This document sits near the top of the planning framework. The policies found in the
Municipal Development Plan influence the Land Use Bylaw, which has to be consistent with them.
The Municipal Development Plan contains direction on how to deal with home occupations:
•
The residential property should be safe and effective for the proposed use.
•
Potential nuisances, such as noise, air quality, parking and traffic should be safely and
effectively contained onsite.
•
Industrial focused home occupations should be encouraged to relocate to existing or
planned industrial business parks when the business operation grows beyond the scale
of a home occupation.
Any definition and regulation of major home occupation in the Land Use Bylaw needs to reflect the
intent of the Municipal Development Plan policies.
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Defining Major Home Occupation
An Issue Background Paper for Stakeholders
3.2
Land Use Bylaw
The Land Use Bylaw regulates land uses. It contains rules and regulations that determine what
types of land uses can go where and what form and intensity the uses might take. It also sets out
how enforcement and development permit processes can take place and identifies developments
that do not need approvals and which need greater scrutiny. Generally, the purpose of a Land Use
Bylaw is to minimize land use conflicts while achieving the goals of the Municipal Development
Plan.
The Land Use Bylaw defines what a major home occupation is and sets out how to regulate it.
Major home occupation is currently defined in the Land Use Bylaw as:
HOME OCCUPATION “MAJOR” means the secondary use of a principal dwelling
unit and/or accessory building(s) by a permanent resident of the
dwelling unit to conduct a business activity which does not change the
residential character of the dwelling and/or accessory building(s), does
not employ more than four (4) employees concurrently. The maximum
number of permitted vehicles is six (6), with associated trailers, up to
a maximum capacity of one‐ton GVW. A Major Home Occupation may exhibit
outdoor storage of vehicles used for the business but other equipment
and building materials but it must be screened from view.
Council has passed a motion directing Administration to change this definition to the following:
HOME OCCUPATION “MAJOR” means the secondary use of a principal dwelling
unit and/or accessory building(s) by a permanent resident of the
dwelling unit to conduct a business activity which does not change the
residential character of the dwelling and/or accessory building(s), does
not employ more than four (4) employees concurrently. The maximum
number of permitted vehicles is six (6), with associated trailers.
Key Question
In your opinion is the new definition for major home occupations suitable, or
should it be changed?
The following provisions would also apply to the new definition, some of which are new based on
Council direction and others already exist in the Land Use Bylaw:
•
No noise, smoke, steam, odour, dust, fumes, exhaust, vibration, heat, glare, refuse, or
storage of hazardous materials can take place.
•
Privacy of adjacent residential uses should be preserved.
•
Four of the six vehicles can be up to 6.5 metric tons gross vehicle weight, excluding
trailers. The other two vehicles can be over 6.5 metric tons gross vehicle weight.
•
Vehicles shall not exceed their axle weights as per the Commercial Transportation
regulations.
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Defining Major Home Occupation
An Issue Background Paper for Stakeholders
•
Vehicles can be stored outside, but trailers and other equipment that are stored
outside needs to be screened from view of neighbouring properties.
•
Vehicles accessing private property need to be able to do so without leaving the driving
lane of a road built to County standards.
•
Vehicles that carry dangerous goods can only be part of the major home occupation if
they operate entirely offsite.
•
Development permits shall expire after three years and be subject to a new application.
A major home occupation must comply with the provisions of the Land Use Bylaw and meet the
definition of a major home occupation before the County can grant approval by issuing a
Development Permit.
Key Question
Are the regulations for major home occupations suitable, or should they change?
Currently the Land Use Bylaw only permits major home occupations in the Agricultural or Country
Residential Districts as Discretionary. The Municipal Planning Commission has full control over the
approval of a Discretionary use.
Council has directed that major home occupations are no longer permitted in the Country
Residential District.
3.3
Development Permits
Development Permits are a review and authorization process set out in the Land Use Bylaw.
Applicants who want to develop a property apply to the County and provide a certain level of
information which can include a site plan through to a geotechnical study depending on the size of
the development being proposed. The County assesses the application to determine if it complies
with the Land Use Bylaw regulations. If it does, the County will provide a Development Permit for
the proposed development allowing the applicant to proceed with their project.
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Defining Major Home Occupation
An Issue Background Paper for Stakeholders
4 Conclusion
We are trying to find a way to redefine major home occupation and the related regulations that
will work for both business owners/operators and also for other businesses and neighbours living
nearby. It is clear that the current definition is lacking as it is not clear about outdoor storage and
is too restrictive when it comes to vehicle weight. Council has proposed a new definition and
regulations, but also wants to know if the new definition is broad enough to include all major
home occupations that are suitable to operate on a residential property.
4.1
Key Questions
We are conducting stakeholder consultation to hear from a variety of new viewpoints on this topic.
We would also appreciate hearing your thoughts on the following:
1. What types, sizes and intensities of business uses should be allowed by the major home
occupation definition on a residential property in the Agricultural District? Consider that there
are likely to be other houses nearby on neighbouring properties that may be impacted.
2. Is the new definition for major home occupation shown in section 3.2 Land Use Bylaw suitable,
or should it be changed?
3. Are the regulations for major home occupation shown in section 3.2 Land Use Bylaw suitable,
or should they change?
4. Are six vehicles (four less than and two greater than six tons gross vehicle weight), trailers and
equipment enough, not enough, or too many?
4.2
How to get in touch?
You can get in touch directly to tell us your opinion on this matter or arrange to attend a
stakeholder meeting to discuss these matters with us in detail. We have scheduled the
stakeholder meetings on June 19 in the afternoon and evening.
We will be placing an online survey on the County website at www.brazeau.ab.ca as another way
of providing us with your input. This will be available from the June 4, 2013.
To attend the stakeholder meetings, tell us your email or otherwise provide your comments,
please get in touch with Laurie Johnson, Manager of Planning and Development at
[email protected] or by calling 780-542-7777.
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